Barstool Booster

Beginning in early February, Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company will decommission its over 20 year old bottling line to make room for a brand new canning line. The canning line will be the first new packaging equipment Red Lodge Ales has purchased in the brewery’s 20-year history. “We are proud to have sourced the equipment from Lincoln, Nebraska and Kingsburg, California. These great American manufacturers have designed filling and packaging equipment for the American craft brewer. We will be able to fill cans faster, with better shelf stability and automate the filling process. We can do all of this in our small footprint at the brewery,” said founder Sam Hoffmann.

The current German-made bottle filler operates at 40 bottles per minute. The new canning line is capable of filling up to 80 cans per minute. Currently, operators have to put empty bottles on the line by hand and pack full bottles into case boxes by hand. The canning line comes with a depalletizer that automatically removes cans from the pallet and a tray and carton former will put full cans in a finished case. The new canning line will also pick up five to ten times less dissolved oxygen than the bottle filler, which relies on older technology. Dissolved oxygen is what eventually causes unpasteurized craft beer to stale on the shelf. Lower dissolved oxygen levels leads to better shelf stability for the beer.

In recent years, consumer preferences have rapidly switched to cans from bottles. Cans take up less space and are easy to pack for outdoor activities such as skiing, hiking and boating, making cans attractive to the craft beer enthusiast. To an extent, Red Lodge Ales is keeping up with the times, but canning has many practical advantages from a production standpoint. With 204,000 cans shipped on a truck to the brewery warehouse versus 90,000 bottles, the shipping costs and fuel consumption to get the materials to the brewery is cut in half. Cans also use less cardboard and finished beer takes up less space in refrigerated storage. While mining bauxite, the ore from which aluminum is derived, has an environmental impact, aluminum cans are very easy to recycle in Montana as opposed to glass.

The Craft Beer Community CAN help

With the cost of the canning line north of $400,000 and the bank financing falling a little short, Red Lodge Ales is looking to crowd source some of the capital needed. The craft beer community can chip in at four levels and get rewarded with discounts from the brewery. The four levels of contributions are listed above. Any level makes a great gift and is redeemable at both Sam’s Tap Room at the brewery in Red Lodge and our sister facility in Billings, Last Chance Pub and Cider Mill.

RULES:

Barstool rewards card is not transferable or replaceable. Fraudulent use of rewards card will result in confiscation. Holder of rewards card is entitled to one dollar off each beer or cider pour at Sam’s Tap Room in Red Lodge or Last Chance Pub in Billings. The discount is only for the holder of the reward card and not others in the party. Intoxicated persons will not be served. Barstool Boosters must have rewards card with them to receive discount. Discount does not apply to happy hour pricing. Rewards card is good until December 31, 2019.

Holder of the growler is entitled to one growler fill per day. Redeemable at Sam’s Tap Room in Red Lodge or the Last Chance Pub in Billings. Holder is responsible for care of growler and cleaning of growler. If Sam’s Tap Room or Last Chance Pub employees break the growler during filling, it will be replaced. Offer applies to year-round beers and ciders and certain seasonal offerings. Certain seasonal or barrel-aged beers and ciders may be exempt from offer. Bronze level fills honored until December 31, 2019, Silver level fills honored until December 31, 2020, and Gold level honored until December 31, 2021.